History/History of Art

History and history of art is a combination that brings together two disciplines with deeply interconnected subject matter. History examines change and continuity in human societies through time, asking why events happened, how institutions evolved and what the experiences of people in the past can tell us about the forces that shape the present. History of art examines visual culture across the same sweep of time, asking how images and objects have been made, what they meant to the people who created and used them, and how they have been interpreted and reinterpreted as cultural contexts have changed.

Together, they give you a richer understanding of both the textual and the visual dimensions of the past.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year full-time programme includes a year abroad and carries a typical entry tariff of 200 UCAS points. The history component offers a wide-ranging programme spanning medieval to modern times and across the globe, with research expertise in Scottish, British, European, US and global history, slavery studies, gender history and war and intelligence studies. The history of art component gives you the visual literacy and critical frameworks to analyse images and objects across different cultural and historical contexts.

The combination develops your ability to work with a diverse range of primary evidence, from written sources and archival materials to paintings, sculpture, buildings and material culture.

Graduates from history and history of art programmes pursue careers in museums, galleries, auction houses, cultural heritage management, journalism, publishing, education, the civil service and academic research. The combination of historical rigour and visual literacy is particularly valued in cultural institutions and organisations working at the intersection of history, art and memory. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in history, art history, curating, cultural studies or museum studies, and the programme provides an excellent foundation for careers in arts leadership, heritage policy and research.